Nam June Paik at Tate Gallery Liverpool on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Dec 17 2010
until Mar 31 2011
Video artist, performer and composer Nam June Paik (1932-2006) was one of the most innovativeartists of the 20th century and is widely considered to be the first video artist. Tate Liverpool, in collaboration with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), presents the first major retrospective of Paik’s work in the UK. Displaying works from all phases of his career, many shown in the UK for the first time, the exhibition traces the artist’savant-garde and experimental spirit. Born in South Korea, Paik began his career as a composer in Japan and Germany, later developingan interest in electronic art and avant-garde movements including the Fluxus group. Influenced byand working alongside artists such as John Cage, Joseph Beuys and Karlheinz Stockhausen, hisearly years in Germany proved to be a formative experience for his practice. Paik continued hisexperiments in performance and video art after moving to New York in 1964. His collaborationwith cellist Charlotte Moorman was particularly significant in the context of the New York avant-garde. Characterised by an inventive use of technology, Paik’s signature style has been establishedthrough mesmerising closed-circuit video installations and manipulated TV works. Covering thediverse yet coherent phases of his career, Tate Liverpool’s exhibition offers a definitive look atPaik’s body of work, from the scores of early music performances and TV works, to robotsculptures and large-scale video installations. In the late 1960s Paik and Japanese video engineerShuya Abe developed a sophisticated method of manipulating video images with the invention ofthe ‘Video-Synthesiser’, which revolutionised video art by distorting the colour and shapes ofimages on TV screens. Paik also undertook public broadcasting and satellite TV projects that wererevolutionary in demonstrating the power of decentralised public media, and his experimental useof popular music and visual images are recognised as an early precursor to the ‘MTV generation’. The exhibition also showcases a rich selection of documentary materials from Paik’s performancesand early exhibitions, including Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, the artist’s first soloexhibition at the Galerie Parnass (Wuppertal, Germany) in 1963. Paik’s influential collaborationsare also explored in depth, including his friendship with artist Joseph Beuys, and its widersignificance in both artists’ practice. Focusing on Paik's innovative use of creative technology, FACT will showcase Laser Cone for thefirst time in the UK: a major laser installation representing Paik's 'post-video’ period and theculmination of his continuous experiments with new technology and media. The presentation willalso include a number of single-channel video works, demonstrating the artist’s interests in thedigital manipulation of visual images as well as the possibilities of satellite technology in extendingthe physical realm of video art. FACT’s display concludes the retrospective both in terms of itschronology and its conceptual genealogy. Nam June Paik is initiated and developed by Tate Liverpool and museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf,curated by Sook-Kyung Lee and Susanne Rennert. The exhibition is presented in Liverpool by TateLiverpool in collaboration with FACT, with curatorial support from Laura Sillars, ProgrammesDirector, FACT. OPENING HOURS: Tue -Sun: 10.00 - 17.50 Image Credits: Nam June Paik demonstrates Zen for Walking 1961, © Manfred Montwé. Photo: Photo by Manfred Montwé Nam June Paik, Zen for TV 1963 - 1975, © Estate of Nam June Paik . Photo: Photo © MUMOK Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien  |
